II still has one of the best scenario I've ever seen in a game. And it's challenging, but fun (you -really- fear some encounters in dungeons).

By hasn't aged well I mean, the level cap of 30, with required grinding to proceed with the story. The menu and interface being unwieldy in this day and age, and the game pulling some seriously sadistic moves at various points, without warning. For all the good it did, it's still a 1980's RPG, and it comes with all those trappings, both good and bad.

As for SMT as a whole. No, I advocate playing the whole series, especially if one's interested in moving onto the modern games. SMT IV works on more levels when you know the plot to I and II, and can pick out the musical nods, and callbacks.

Bravely Default. For a good 30h it was a strong 7, maybe even a light 8 out of 10. Then it completely and utterly turned to shit. In 20 years of gaming I haven't encountered a game that shot itself into the foot like this. Save yourself the disappointment and avoid this, no matter how good it looks at first glance.

I'll be a bit more lenient, because the combat remains solid in some endgame fights, and the mechanics are good-to-great, but I also agree. A relatively strong ending sequence, and good final dungeon couldn't save that game's final 1/3 from being the most bizarre, and disappointing design choice I've seen in a long time. A game I was enjoying a lot, despite its fairly weak story, and cliched characters just fell apart.

The saddest part is, it all felt redundant. Ending the game at the 2/3 mark may have done some damage, but nearly as much as how the game plays out from that point forward.

Other than playing FIFA with my brother, which I can't really give an opinion on in a thread like this, I haven't had time to game, or do much of anything in the past two weeks.

By turn-based I assume you mean basic RPGs, like Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy 1?

Anyway, Dual Orb 2 - it's the basic RPG. Literally everything about the game aside from the battle-sprites is generic. That's not a bad thing, it hits all the right notes, and it's pretty much the benchmark by which I measure every other basic RPG. SNES game, with a translation patch found here.

Breath of Fire 1 and 2 - much like the game above they're standard RPGs. That said, many of the genre's cliches started here, and it's interesting to see them where they originated. I wouldn't call either game great on its merits, but they're good, and what they did for the genre was great at the time, alas it's a genre that hasn't expanded much (generally speaking) since the SNES days.

I'll always advocate people playing Shin Megami Tensei I and II.

Earthbound is about as retro as it gets from the battle standpoint, but the game's loved for its sense of humor. Never really cared for it personally, but it's worth looking into, and I understand why people enjoy it.

Phantasy Star II and IV - the series does get praised because it was an alternative to the Nintendo games of the times, but I'll still say that both of these games can stand on their own without issue. IV's a truly good game, by any standard, II hasn't aged very well, but it sets the table for IV.

I assume it had more to do with the target demographic of the system than battery life. Outside of the few games that were purely products of their time (which the original FF1 was), the series has never been overly difficult anyway.

There are a handful of exceptions. II's a difficult game, but that has more to do with mechanics (and there are exploits). III's difficult no matter what, and so is its remake. XII has difficult side content. XIII is a relatively difficult game once one gets to the meat of the game.

My point is, the difficulty may have dropped, but it's not as though Ninja Gaiden, or Devil May Cry was neutered. Most of the games weren't difficult to begin with. That said, I understand the frustration of not being challenged by a game when one's looking for that element.

P.Studio is the name of Persona Studios, it's what R&D1 morphed into. R&D1 was Atlus' team that worked Persona, EP/IS, Nocturne, and Digital Devil Saga etc.

Katsura Hashino is, if not the head of the P.Studios team, then the one who directs most of their games. He's been director, producer, or both on: Persona 3, Persona 4, Catherine, as well as P4:Arena. This includes most of the remakes and revamps. He was also the game designer for Nocturne (SMT III), and Digital Devil Saga, so his track record is pretty much outstanding.

I don't remember if it happened here, the BSNES boards, or the Dejap section of the ZSNES boards back in the day, but I once told Byuu that I, for the longest time, thought BSNES actually stood for BS NES. His retort was "Only the system requirements".

What plug-ins are you using? There are some 2d specific graphics plug-ins that you may want to try first, just to see if it clears up the issue. I have no clue what the latest versions are at this stage.

tri-Ace has also found work back with them on the FFXIII series. This comes after Resonance of Fate (End of Eternity) was published by Sega. I'll take that as meaning there's not too much in the way of hard feelings, seeing as they've been making use of the company's talents for battle systems at the very least.

tri-Ace isn't a bit company. They've got around a hundred employees or so, now they're not as niche as something like Front Mission in the NA region, but they're relatively small, and their games don't set the world on fire in terms of sales, plus they've been with Enix for a long time (96 or so). Yet the relationship seems to be a solid one. I'm sure someone else can give other examples, tri-Ace just happens to be a company I personally enjoy.

That's kinda what I figured. I guess I'll just stick to playing them on my laptop. I pretty much only play the Castlevania games (big surprise) and maybe just a few others like Link's Awakening. Not worth spending money on it since I only care about probably 10 games for the system.

If you were to decide to spend money on it, know that they're pretty cheap. A quick look at Amazon shows them selling for around $12 U.S.

I think I'm safe in saying that, in the long run, I had more fun with DKC than I did with Super Mario World. Those visuals, dissected as they've been over the years, were like nothing I'd ever seen back then, and the bosses were huge, full screen enemies. The music is also outstanding.

Out of curiosity, are you including Tales of the Abyss in the 3DS lineup? If so, what was the issue with that when it was transferred over from the PS2? Honestly, it's probably my least favorite game that I've played in the series, but it's been a long time, and I still consider picking it up from time to time. If it's a mess then I guess I'll skip it anyway.

I don't know about anyone else, but much like you I look back at games I've owned/own, and I just think it's weird that they're worth so much nowadays. I also feel old, but that's another story all together.

Disc only prices are $70-80 average and complete prices are $85-120 with a quick search of eBay completed auctions. But still, too expensive for my blood right now. I'm regretting selling mine about 7 years ago...

If the game was only a little over $100 U.S. it wouldn't be so bad. Last time I checked copies were selling for $400+. At this time it looks like they've gone over $500.

The only physical copy of the game I've ever seen was the one I borrowed from a friend, burnt to my disk drive, and gave back, just so I wouldn't have to worry about actually scratching the thing. Heck, I don't even treat Persona 2:EP with that amount of care.

As for the game itself. It's rough around the edges, typos, grammatical errors, etc. The localization was a product of its time and budget, but as we've discussed here before, the game itself is one of the best in the genre. Especially in regards to the arc the main trio go through. Not to mention the returning faces from the original.

I have put a lot of time into DA:I already, and I don't think I'll be stopping anytime soon. Heck, I've started over twice just for the fun of it. Complaints are few and far between. Just exploring the world is a staggering process, but checking every nook and cranny for extra reading material is and extremely awesome experience to me.

I can't comment on Divinity, but I'm just about done with DA:I and unless in falls apart in the last act, then it's certainly my RPG of the year.

The issue with that is that it's all guess work. Knowing the games were meant to be connected, and actually connecting those games are two entirely different things. Without knowing how the plot, character arcs, etc. were supposed to play out, all it will be is a hodge-podge of two good games.

Not to mention that, just because the games may have started life as one and the same, doesn't mean they are directly connected still. Resident Evil and Devil May Cry also are very closely connected, that doesn't mean they didn't develop along their own paths very early in the development process.